Long Branch shooting: Family friends in disbelief over quadruple homicide

The Monmouth County Prosecutor reports that three family members and a friend were killed by a 16-year-old with a semiautomatic weapon on Wall Street in Long Branch, NJ, on New Year's Eve.
THOMAS P. COSTELLO

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Investigators are shown outside the Wall Street home in Long Branch, NJ, Monday morning, January 1, 2018, where 3 family members and a friend were allegedly killed by a 16-year-old boy on New Year’s Eve.(Photo: Thomas P. Costello)Buy Photo

LONG BRANCH - The family seemed picturesque — there was a doting, supportive mom and dad, four kids who appeared to be well-cared for, a quiet home in the city where neighbors had good things to say about the Kologis.

Was. Past tense. After a report of gunfire about 15 minutes before the New Year, parents Steven and Linda Kologi, 18-year-old sibling Brittany Kologi and 70-year-old family friend Mary Schulz were found dead. The weapon, officials with the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office said, was a Century Arms semi-automatic rifle, legally owned by a family member and wielded by a 16-year-old member of the Kologi family.

The boy was identified as Scott Kologi. He was taken into custody without incident shortly after Long Branch police responded to the crime scene — a house on Wall Street — around 11:44 p.m. Sunday, a minute after the 911 call came through.

"Very hard to understand how this happened ... Wouldn't expect anything like this from him. This is out of the blue," said Joe Rios, who identified himself as a longtime family friend. "Something must have happened because you never, ever thought something like this would happen with their family. Ever."

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Joe Rios was still in shock that his friend and family members were killed by that man's 16-year-old son in Long Branch, NJ.
THOMAS P. COSTELLO

Steven Kologi, 44, and Linda Kologi, 42, were parents who cared deeply for their children, friends said, emphasizing that Steven Kologi worked hard to provide for his family.

"My God, he'd do anything for his kids," said Ronnie Pacheco, a Long Branch resident who said he'd met Steven Kologi around 1988 through Little League baseball. "He took on so many jobs, and I always picked him up and dropped him off at some jobs, some midnight to 9 in the morning job. He did everything and anything to support his family."

Through their friendship, Pacheco said he never knew Kologi had a gun — Kologi wasn't into hunting, as far as he knew.

Four children lived in the home, said Veronica Mass, 69, of Union Beach, a longtime friend of Linda Kologi. Those children are Brittany, Jonathon, Steve Jr. and Scott, Mass said.

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Investigators are shown outside the Wall Street home in Long Branch, NJ, Monday morning, January 1, 2018, where 3 family members and a friend were allegedly killed by a 16-year-old boy on New Year’s Eve.(Photo: Thomas P. Costello)

Three friends of the family said Scott Kologi had autism, although they said they did not know where he sat on the spectrum.

At a news conference Monday morning, Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher Gramiccioni declined to answer a reporter's question about what role, if any, that autism might have played in the case.

"Your video low kept me from hanging myself tonight thank you for always being there

A month earlier, in September, the @lindakologi account tweeted again at @foofighters, "the first 20yrs of my life horrible unspeakable but the next 20glorious becaus of my husband and children no other way to repay."

On June 18, 2017, the account tweeted at @foofighters, "I'm still here in whole of you you remind me to stay and not be selfish although i'm in pain."

A spokesman for the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office said Monday evening he had no way of knowing the authenticity of social media posts and would not comment on the veracity of any unverified posts.

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A Long Branch police car blocks Wall Street Monday morning, January 1, 2018, near the home where 3 family members and a friend were allegedly killed by a 16-year-old boy on New Year’s Eve.(Photo: Thomas P. Costello)

A 2009 bankruptcy filing said Linda Kologi was collecting unemployment while Steven Kologi was employed as a mailman. It was unknown if she was employed at the time of her death.

“I still can’t believe Scott did this," Mass said. “She was a good person. I can’t understand why he flipped out. I can’t think of anything.”

Since the 16-year-old suspect was taken into custody, he was transported to the Middlesex County Juvenile Detention Center and Gramiccioni, the Monmouth County prosecutor, said the teen would be charged with four counts of murder and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, and could be tried as an adult.

Officials said repeatedly Monday the quadruple homicide was an "isolated domestic incident" and posed no threat to the public.

"Always hung out. Every weekend," Rios said of his routine with Steven Kologi. "Got out of work, stop, have a beer together. Softball time comes — we're always having things on the field every Sunday. Wednesday we play. His father would show up, sometimes his wife would come with the kids, sit there and watch. So they were involved with us a lot."

"But like I said, it's very hard to understand how this happened," Rios said.